Five Israeli projects won Pitch Point awards at the ceremony.
Zetjune, the upcoming second feature from Luzzu director Alex Camilleri, has won the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab Grand Prize on Saturday (July 23), at a joint ceremony in which Jerusalem Industry Days announced its Pitch Point winners.
Featuring real artists from the Maltese folk scene, musical Zejtune follows a 30-year-old woman whose life is reinvigorated by an encounter with an elderly troubadour.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The 50,000 award was given to Maltese-us filmmaker Camilleri and his producers Rebecca Anastasi from Malta and Ramin Bahrami from the US.
Zetjune, the upcoming second feature from Luzzu director Alex Camilleri, has won the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab Grand Prize on Saturday (July 23), at a joint ceremony in which Jerusalem Industry Days announced its Pitch Point winners.
Featuring real artists from the Maltese folk scene, musical Zejtune follows a 30-year-old woman whose life is reinvigorated by an encounter with an elderly troubadour.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The 50,000 award was given to Maltese-us filmmaker Camilleri and his producers Rebecca Anastasi from Malta and Ramin Bahrami from the US.
- 7/25/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
First edition to include 14 features.
An EU-backed European Film Festival is set to launch in Saudi Arabia this week, comprising 14 acclaimed features and a series of filmmaker events.
The festival has been organised by the Delegation of the European Union in the Saudi capital of Riyadh with support from media firm Arabia Pictures Group (Apg). Taking place from June 15-22 in Riyadh, it is intended to promote European cinema and foster contacts between European and Saudi filmmakers.
Subjects covered in the programme of films include female empowerment, climate change and disability. Titles selected for the inaugural edition include Polish drama Never Gonna Snow Again,...
An EU-backed European Film Festival is set to launch in Saudi Arabia this week, comprising 14 acclaimed features and a series of filmmaker events.
The festival has been organised by the Delegation of the European Union in the Saudi capital of Riyadh with support from media firm Arabia Pictures Group (Apg). Taking place from June 15-22 in Riyadh, it is intended to promote European cinema and foster contacts between European and Saudi filmmakers.
Subjects covered in the programme of films include female empowerment, climate change and disability. Titles selected for the inaugural edition include Polish drama Never Gonna Snow Again,...
- 6/13/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
American-Maltese Director Alex Camilleri’s debut feature film Luzzu is the story of Jesmark, a Maltese fisherman coming to terms with comprises he must make to his entrenched familial values. It’s part drama, part social-realist thriller and is anchored by a tremendous central performance by real-life fisherman Jesmark Scicluna. In addition to his protagonist, Camilleri continued his neo-realist approach in making Luzzu, casting non-actors across the entirety of his film which gives it a grounded authenticity. This authenticity is backed by Jon Natchez’s (of The War On Drugs and Beirut fame) score which begins with serene textures that underpin Jesmark’s life on the water before reflecting the building tension of his compromised ethics through pulsing electronic rhythms. Dn spoke with both Camilleri and Natchez ahead of Luzzu arriving in cinemas tomorrow to discuss the practicalities of Camilleri’s street casting process, his multi-role perspective as a creator,...
- 5/26/2022
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
Casting real-life fishers as his stars, Maltese-American director Alex Camilleri’s paean to his homeland is a neo-realistic classic in the making
Awash in blues and yellows, the colours of the traditional Maltese fishing boat known as a luzzu, Alex Camilleri’s debut is nothing short of a future neo-realist classic. Enveloped in the gentle rippling of the cerulean waves, the evocative soundscape conjures up a vision of seaside idyll. But for the hard-working fishers, rough winds seem to threaten every aspect of their financially precarious life.
Ocean water courses through the veins of young Jesmark (Jesmark Scicluna), who inherits his colourful but leaking boat from a long line of seamen going back to his great-grandfather. Camilleri’s astonishing observation of the daily minutiae – from the pleasure of a good catch to the frustrations at the cut-throat fish auctions – shows how Jesmark’s very identity is entangled with his vanishing trade.
Awash in blues and yellows, the colours of the traditional Maltese fishing boat known as a luzzu, Alex Camilleri’s debut is nothing short of a future neo-realist classic. Enveloped in the gentle rippling of the cerulean waves, the evocative soundscape conjures up a vision of seaside idyll. But for the hard-working fishers, rough winds seem to threaten every aspect of their financially precarious life.
Ocean water courses through the veins of young Jesmark (Jesmark Scicluna), who inherits his colourful but leaking boat from a long line of seamen going back to his great-grandfather. Camilleri’s astonishing observation of the daily minutiae – from the pleasure of a good catch to the frustrations at the cut-throat fish auctions – shows how Jesmark’s very identity is entangled with his vanishing trade.
- 5/23/2022
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
The film-maker wanted to tell his Maltese story as authentically as he could – so he hired non-actors, ditched the script, and captured the spirit of the island
Cousins Jesmark and David Scicluna, both fishers by trade, had never acted a day in their lives when Maltese-American film-maker Alex Camilleri spotted them in Għar Lapsi, a small inlet on the southern coast of Malta. Camilleri had flown to the Mediterranean island in search of fishers to star in his Maltese-language film Luzzu, but he was running out of time. The next day, he was due to fly back to New York, where he was working as an associate editor on Ramin Bahrani’s adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. In a final attempt to find suitable actors, Camilleri drove down to Għar Lapsi with the film’s casting director, Edward Said.
Jesmark Scicluna, who went on to win the special jury award for...
Cousins Jesmark and David Scicluna, both fishers by trade, had never acted a day in their lives when Maltese-American film-maker Alex Camilleri spotted them in Għar Lapsi, a small inlet on the southern coast of Malta. Camilleri had flown to the Mediterranean island in search of fishers to star in his Maltese-language film Luzzu, but he was running out of time. The next day, he was due to fly back to New York, where he was working as an associate editor on Ramin Bahrani’s adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. In a final attempt to find suitable actors, Camilleri drove down to Għar Lapsi with the film’s casting director, Edward Said.
Jesmark Scicluna, who went on to win the special jury award for...
- 5/20/2022
- by Melita Cameron-Wood
- The Guardian - Film News
After Luzzu made history by becoming the first Maltese feature to compete in a major international festival, the pic now sails its way to the Oscar race as the nation’s International Feature submission.
Helmed by debutant director Alex Camilleri (also the editor and writer), the film revolves around Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta who is forced to risk everything by entering the world of illegal fishing in order to provide for his wife and newborn baby.
Camilleri’s identity of growing up in America but being of Maltese decent left him always wanting to explore his home country through film, he said during the film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event.
“I was so interested in the world of fishermen; it’s seeped in beauty and tradition but...
Helmed by debutant director Alex Camilleri (also the editor and writer), the film revolves around Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta who is forced to risk everything by entering the world of illegal fishing in order to provide for his wife and newborn baby.
Camilleri’s identity of growing up in America but being of Maltese decent left him always wanting to explore his home country through film, he said during the film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event.
“I was so interested in the world of fishermen; it’s seeped in beauty and tradition but...
- 11/20/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/15/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
From producer Ramin Bahrani, the directorial debut of Alex Camilleri is a heart-wrenching and naturalistic look at a Maltese fisherman. Kino Lorber has now unveiled the first trailer for Luzzu, the Sundance award winner in anticipation of its release in theaters on October 15.
In an award-winning performance, Jesmark (Jesmark Scicluna) is a hardened Maltese fisherman, struggling to repair his family’s Luzzu (a multi-colored traditional fishing boat), to continue his family legacy of making a meager living fishing. His world is upended by his newborn son’s health issues, forcing his to choice whether he has to decommission his Luzzu in exchange for a payout that could provide for his family or preserve his prized Luzzu and continue to struggle to provide for his wife and newborn son.
Michael Frank in our review praised aspects of the film, “A simple, yet beautiful film due to this sense of place, Luzzu...
In an award-winning performance, Jesmark (Jesmark Scicluna) is a hardened Maltese fisherman, struggling to repair his family’s Luzzu (a multi-colored traditional fishing boat), to continue his family legacy of making a meager living fishing. His world is upended by his newborn son’s health issues, forcing his to choice whether he has to decommission his Luzzu in exchange for a payout that could provide for his family or preserve his prized Luzzu and continue to struggle to provide for his wife and newborn son.
Michael Frank in our review praised aspects of the film, “A simple, yet beautiful film due to this sense of place, Luzzu...
- 9/7/2021
- by Margaret Rasberry
- The Film Stage
"If you change every piece of a boat... is it still the same boat?" Kino Lorber has unveiled the official US trailer for an acclaimed indie film from the tiny island nation of Malta titled Luzzu, which first premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it won a Special Jury Prize for non-professional lead actor Jesmark Scicluna. Set on the island following an old school fisher, a man risks everything to provide for his wife and newborn son by entering Malta's black-market fishing industry. Scicluna is a real life Maltese fisherman, and co-stars with Michela Farrugia, David Scicluna, Frida Cauchi, and Uday McLean. The new film "heralds the arrival of writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri, a gripping storyteller in the neorealist tradition of early Luchino Visconti and the Dardenne brothers as well as his mentor Ramin Bahrani, a producer of the film." This is one of my favorite discoveries...
- 8/17/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Memento International (“Call Me By Your Name”) has closed a raft of sales on Leah Purcell’s Australian revenge tale “The Drover’s Wife,” and Alex Camilleri’s “Luzzu” which world premiered at SXSW and Sundance.
After selling North American rights to “The Drover’s Wife” to Samuel Goldwyn, Memento has sold “The Drover’s Wife” to the U.K. (Modern Film), Latin America (Encripta), Greece (Spentzos), Bulgaria (Film Vision), Ex Yugoslavia, (Megacom), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and Airlines (Anuvu). The film is being handled by Roadshow Films in Australia.
A searing Western thriller, the play “The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson” is a reimagining of Henry Lawson’s classic short story “The Drover’s Wife” and an adaptation of Purcell’s successful Australian stage play.
The story is set in 1893, and centers on the heavily pregnant Molly Johnson (Purcell) and her children, who struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian...
After selling North American rights to “The Drover’s Wife” to Samuel Goldwyn, Memento has sold “The Drover’s Wife” to the U.K. (Modern Film), Latin America (Encripta), Greece (Spentzos), Bulgaria (Film Vision), Ex Yugoslavia, (Megacom), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and Airlines (Anuvu). The film is being handled by Roadshow Films in Australia.
A searing Western thriller, the play “The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson” is a reimagining of Henry Lawson’s classic short story “The Drover’s Wife” and an adaptation of Purcell’s successful Australian stage play.
The story is set in 1893, and centers on the heavily pregnant Molly Johnson (Purcell) and her children, who struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian...
- 6/22/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
With a slimmer lineup and much of the action taking place online rather than in Park City, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival will be anything but normal. But if early sales activity is any indication, the hybrid virtual/in-person festival will still serve as a key acquisitions market for distributors.
News of the first deals broke on December 16, the day after Sundance revealed its full slate of 72 features. That’s when Bleecker Street announced it has acquired North American rights to Nikole Beckwith’s “Together Together” and Magnolia Pictures revealed it has nabbed Rodney Ascher’s Midnight section pick “A Glitch in the Matrix.”
While those two movies come from established filmmakers, over half of the festival lineup comes from first-time feature directors. Over 90 percent of the slate are world premieres.
That suggests there is plenty of opportunity for the discovery of hidden gems. But with streaming — coupled with satellite screenings...
News of the first deals broke on December 16, the day after Sundance revealed its full slate of 72 features. That’s when Bleecker Street announced it has acquired North American rights to Nikole Beckwith’s “Together Together” and Magnolia Pictures revealed it has nabbed Rodney Ascher’s Midnight section pick “A Glitch in the Matrix.”
While those two movies come from established filmmakers, over half of the festival lineup comes from first-time feature directors. Over 90 percent of the slate are world premieres.
That suggests there is plenty of opportunity for the discovery of hidden gems. But with streaming — coupled with satellite screenings...
- 6/8/2021
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
Sônia Braga with her Aquarius director Kleber Mendonça Filho Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of New Directors/New Films, hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, Kleber Mendonça Filho spoke with Richard Peña, Ramin Bahrani chatted with Larry Kardish, and Sara Driver will speak with Wendy Keys in the HBO sponsored live virtual Free Talks. Sleepwalk was screened virtually for free in the New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective programme.
Jesmark Scicluna in Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu screens on Sunday, May 9 at 6:00pm
Ramin Bahrani joined Larry Kardish virtually last night for a wonderful in-depth conversation on his career. I sent in the following comment and question which...
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of New Directors/New Films, hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, Kleber Mendonça Filho spoke with Richard Peña, Ramin Bahrani chatted with Larry Kardish, and Sara Driver will speak with Wendy Keys in the HBO sponsored live virtual Free Talks. Sleepwalk was screened virtually for free in the New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective programme.
Jesmark Scicluna in Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu screens on Sunday, May 9 at 6:00pm
Ramin Bahrani joined Larry Kardish virtually last night for a wonderful in-depth conversation on his career. I sent in the following comment and question which...
- 5/6/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Alex Camilleri’s feature debut, “Luzzu,” which world-premiered at Sundance where it won the Special Jury Award for its lead actor, Jesmark Scicluna. The movie is being sold by Memento Intl.
Penned, directed and edited by Camilleri, “Luzzu” revolves around Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta who is forced to risk everything by entering the world of black market fishing in order to provide for his wife and newborn baby.
“Luzzu” was the first Maltese feature to compete in a major international festival. The film was praised by critics for the poignant performances of non-actors and professionals in lead roles. The movie is produced by Rebecca Anastasi, Ramin Bahrani, Camilleri and Oliver Mallia.
Kino Lorber will be releasing the film later this year. “Nothing is more exciting than to see the emergence of a new filmmaking talent, and I...
Penned, directed and edited by Camilleri, “Luzzu” revolves around Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta who is forced to risk everything by entering the world of black market fishing in order to provide for his wife and newborn baby.
“Luzzu” was the first Maltese feature to compete in a major international festival. The film was praised by critics for the poignant performances of non-actors and professionals in lead roles. The movie is produced by Rebecca Anastasi, Ramin Bahrani, Camilleri and Oliver Mallia.
Kino Lorber will be releasing the film later this year. “Nothing is more exciting than to see the emergence of a new filmmaking talent, and I...
- 3/2/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Memento International licenses UK to Peccadillo.
Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu, one of the more acclaimed titles to premiere at Sundance in January.
Memento International has licensed the film for the UK (Peccadillo), France (Epicentre), China (Hugoeast), Spain (Wanda), Scandinavia (Edge), Portugal (Legendmain), Greece (Weirdwave), former Yugoslavia (Kino Mediteran), and Eastern Europe (HBO).
Luzzu stars professional and non-professional actors, and garnered the festival’s special jury award for best actor for Jesmark Scicluna, who plays a Maltese fisherman forced into an illicit black-market fishing operation to provide for his wife and newborn son.
Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu, one of the more acclaimed titles to premiere at Sundance in January.
Memento International has licensed the film for the UK (Peccadillo), France (Epicentre), China (Hugoeast), Spain (Wanda), Scandinavia (Edge), Portugal (Legendmain), Greece (Weirdwave), former Yugoslavia (Kino Mediteran), and Eastern Europe (HBO).
Luzzu stars professional and non-professional actors, and garnered the festival’s special jury award for best actor for Jesmark Scicluna, who plays a Maltese fisherman forced into an illicit black-market fishing operation to provide for his wife and newborn son.
- 3/2/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Chicago – The 2021 Sundance Film Festival will be long remembered as the “virtual” version due to the pandemic, but there are always the real films, and the festival announced their competition honorees on February 2nd, in a virtual ceremony hosted by comedian Patton Oswalt.
After six days, 73 feature films and 50 Short Films, the Grand Jury Prizes were awarded to “Coda” (U.S. Dramatic) … Coda is an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults, and highlights the character of Ruby. “Summer of Soul” (U.S. Documentary) … the “Black Woodstock” of Harlem in the same Summer of 1969. “Flee” (World Cinema Documentary) … a child immigrant grows up to be a respected academic, but still harbors a secret. And “Hive” (World Cinema Dramatic) … a woman has a husband missing in action during the Kosovo war – should she continue to support herself or wait?
The list of all award winners are below.
Grand Jury Prize
Coda
Photo credit: Sundance Film Festival
U.
After six days, 73 feature films and 50 Short Films, the Grand Jury Prizes were awarded to “Coda” (U.S. Dramatic) … Coda is an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults, and highlights the character of Ruby. “Summer of Soul” (U.S. Documentary) … the “Black Woodstock” of Harlem in the same Summer of 1969. “Flee” (World Cinema Documentary) … a child immigrant grows up to be a respected academic, but still harbors a secret. And “Hive” (World Cinema Dramatic) … a woman has a husband missing in action during the Kosovo war – should she continue to support herself or wait?
The list of all award winners are below.
Grand Jury Prize
Coda
Photo credit: Sundance Film Festival
U.
- 2/3/2021
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Sundance Acting Award winner Jesmark Scicluna and Michela Farrugia in Luzzu. Director Alex Camilleri: 'Jesmark’s performance is so subtle. It's amazingly soulful, he had a soulfulness that just came through' Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute/Inigo Taylor
Director Alex Camilleri's debut, Luzzu, is a neorealist drama about a fisherman (Jesmark Scicluna), who is facing choices about his family's fishing tradition on their luzzu boat after the birth of his son. The film - shot in Marsaxlokk in Malta - blends non-professional and professional actors and is a gripping and heartfelt consideration of the changing way of life on the island as the fishermen face the realities of commercial fishing, the changing face of the European Union and black market activity. Proving that non-professional actors can be every bit as good as those who are trained for the role, Scicluna won the Acting Award at Sundance, where the film had its world premiere.
Director Alex Camilleri's debut, Luzzu, is a neorealist drama about a fisherman (Jesmark Scicluna), who is facing choices about his family's fishing tradition on their luzzu boat after the birth of his son. The film - shot in Marsaxlokk in Malta - blends non-professional and professional actors and is a gripping and heartfelt consideration of the changing way of life on the island as the fishermen face the realities of commercial fishing, the changing face of the European Union and black market activity. Proving that non-professional actors can be every bit as good as those who are trained for the role, Scicluna won the Acting Award at Sundance, where the film had its world premiere.
- 2/3/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Siân Heder’s US feel-good family tale Coda won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize.
Coda and Hive were the big winners at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival virtual awards ceremony on Tuesday night (February 2), taking home four and three prizes, respectively.
Siân Heder’s US feel-good family tale Coda – set up after producer Patrick Wachsberger took remake rights to French film La Famille Bélier with him when he left Lionsgate – won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, and Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic prizes.
The...
Coda and Hive were the big winners at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival virtual awards ceremony on Tuesday night (February 2), taking home four and three prizes, respectively.
Siân Heder’s US feel-good family tale Coda – set up after producer Patrick Wachsberger took remake rights to French film La Famille Bélier with him when he left Lionsgate – won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, and Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic prizes.
The...
- 2/3/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The mostly virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close. The festival announced awards winners Tuesday night, trading an in-person ceremony for one broadcast live and hosted by Patton Oswalt. The biggest winner was Sian Heder’s coming of age drama “Coda,” which earned four U.S. Dramatic Competition awards, including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. Other Big winners were “Summer of Soul,” which took home the two top U.S. Documentary awards.
Blerta Basholli’s “Hive” won three awards in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition: the Directing and Audience awards and the Grand Jury Prize. Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s “Writing with Fire” earned two World Cinema Documentary awards.
A total of 72 features screened over the last week, along with 50 shorts, four Indie Series, and 14 New Frontier VR/new media projects. Those projects were judged by a jury made up of Zeynep Atakan, Raúl Castillo,...
Blerta Basholli’s “Hive” won three awards in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition: the Directing and Audience awards and the Grand Jury Prize. Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s “Writing with Fire” earned two World Cinema Documentary awards.
A total of 72 features screened over the last week, along with 50 shorts, four Indie Series, and 14 New Frontier VR/new media projects. Those projects were judged by a jury made up of Zeynep Atakan, Raúl Castillo,...
- 2/3/2021
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
The sad spectacle of Brexit over the last five years has led many casual news-watchers to over-idealize the European Union, even as its uniform industry regulations and injunctions weigh harshly on a lot of innocent parties. A view from the other side comes in “Luzzu,” an honest, affecting slab of working-class portraiture, altogether bracing with its thorny labor politics and salty sea air.
Taking a close, tough view of a Maltese fisherman increasingly driven from the trade he loves by mounting economic strain — atop an unenviable pile-up of personal crises — this satisfying debut feature from Maltese-American writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri also places a welcome cinematic spotlight on an island nation more frequently seen on screen standing in for other Mediterranean or North African locales. Following a premiere in Sundance’s world cinema competition, “Luzzu” looks likely to be a new benchmark in Malta’s little-heralded film industry.
Camilleri’s previous credits...
Taking a close, tough view of a Maltese fisherman increasingly driven from the trade he loves by mounting economic strain — atop an unenviable pile-up of personal crises — this satisfying debut feature from Maltese-American writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri also places a welcome cinematic spotlight on an island nation more frequently seen on screen standing in for other Mediterranean or North African locales. Following a premiere in Sundance’s world cinema competition, “Luzzu” looks likely to be a new benchmark in Malta’s little-heralded film industry.
Camilleri’s previous credits...
- 2/2/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Filmed and set in Malta, director Alex Camilleri’s debut Luzzu follows Jesmark, a fisherman and new father, in his attempt to find the money and resources to give his young family a good life. Set up by a simple premise, and a hyperrealist approach, the film pits dreams against pragmatism, as Jesmark struggles to abandon his generational pull towards hitting the open sea in his tiny, hand-painted boat.
As most audiences will find, we’re even less aware of Maltese life and this culture of fishing than we think. Camilleri, a Maltese-American, has spent the last decade working as an editor and assistant editor on a number of films, collaborating often with Iranian-American director Ramin Bahrani. Camilleri takes a naturalist path in his first film, edging on documentary fiction, casting a leading man in Jesmark Scicluna with a hardened face and an unwillingness to smile.
Quickly, Jesmark realizes he...
As most audiences will find, we’re even less aware of Maltese life and this culture of fishing than we think. Camilleri, a Maltese-American, has spent the last decade working as an editor and assistant editor on a number of films, collaborating often with Iranian-American director Ramin Bahrani. Camilleri takes a naturalist path in his first film, edging on documentary fiction, casting a leading man in Jesmark Scicluna with a hardened face and an unwillingness to smile.
Quickly, Jesmark realizes he...
- 2/1/2021
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
The list of films shot or produced on location in Malta is a short one, with the island’s shimmery Mediterranean beauty primarily the backdrop for swords-and-sandals epics. A rare locally-produced film that is also about Malta itself, and features actual Maltese people, “Luzzu” marks the debut of director Alex Camilleri with a vérité fishing drama populated by nonprofessional actors. , who also work with locals on their films, “Luzzu” is beautifully shot, if at times emotionally restrained, in its centering around a man who’s occasionally hard to read. But it boast a true discovery in the casting of Jesmark Scicluna, a real fisherman who plays a version of himself, and here playing a struggling parent trying to eke out a living along the docks.
A “luzzu” is a traditional Maltese fishing boat, and a veritable 20th-century relic compared to the more advanced trawlers of today. Jesmark’s luzzu, an...
A “luzzu” is a traditional Maltese fishing boat, and a veritable 20th-century relic compared to the more advanced trawlers of today. Jesmark’s luzzu, an...
- 1/29/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Anyone who has ever visited Malta, will be familiar with the small, brightly coloured luzzu fishing boats with their eyes of Osiris looking out from the prow. They - and those who sail them - now get to take centre stage in Alex Camilleri's emotionally resonant neorealist drama.
Jesmark, is from a long family tradition of fisherman, his own baby footprint stamped on his boat. Fishing is no easy career in the modern world, with Jesmark facing the specific problem of an expensive leak. The luzzu isn’t his only baby, however, and his newborn son is also facing growth problems – problems that also require cash that he and his wife Denise (Michaela Farrugia) can ill afford.
Camilleri allows the craft of the fisherman and the tensions of their profession to emerge by degrees against the backdrop of...
Jesmark, is from a long family tradition of fisherman, his own baby footprint stamped on his boat. Fishing is no easy career in the modern world, with Jesmark facing the specific problem of an expensive leak. The luzzu isn’t his only baby, however, and his newborn son is also facing growth problems – problems that also require cash that he and his wife Denise (Michaela Farrugia) can ill afford.
Camilleri allows the craft of the fisherman and the tensions of their profession to emerge by degrees against the backdrop of...
- 1/29/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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